Old/Boring/30 List

Everyone has a bucket list. But mine is a little bit different. Sometime in my teenage years, I started a list of things that I wanted to do before I was old, boring, or 30 years old. Whichever happened first.

Of course, at fifteen, thirty was another lifetime away. But now that I’m twenty-five, I find it growing disarmingly close. As a teenager, I thought life ended at thirty; however, now I find that life has become much sweeter. When I turn twenty-nine, I shall amend my list just a little. It shall become the old, boring, or 40 list. And every decade thereafter, I shall keep bumping the age back.

Because after all, you’re only as old as you allow yourself to be. And I intend to never be boring.

So here’s the ever-changing list. Hopefully things will be added and crossed off quite rapidly.

• Become a lifeguard
• Learn another language
• Paint a (ugly!) picture and hang it on a wall
• Learn how to blow bubblegum bubbles
• Fall truly, madly, deeply in love
• Go on a safari
• Memorize a book of the Bible
• Go to Ireland
• Visit Scotland
• Watch the sunrise from the beach
• Live in a foreign country for a year
• Travel to London
• Get married
• Get a tattoo(?)
• Hang up a hammock in the backyard
• Watch someone get a tattoo
• Plant a garden of wildflowers
• Go on a trail ride with horses
• Camp on the beach, hearing the surf at night
• Go white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon
• Take a helicopter ride
• Hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail
• Ride a double-decker bus
• Learn how to surf
• Write a children’s book
• Write novels and get them published!
• Write a column
• Knit something besides a scarf
• Have children
• Sharpen my photography skills
• Participate in a 5k
• Be in a documentary
• Learn the names of the stars
• Took a train tour of the country
• Learn how to dance
• Go on a cross-country road-trip
• Go snorkeling
• See dolphins in the wild
• Backpack through Europe
• Take up the piano again
• Become a barista
• Take a tram by night and see the city lights all around me
• Go on a cruise
• Listen to a classical music concert on the edge of the Grand Canyon
• Go to Athens
• Learn to play another instrument
• Visit NYC
• See the Golden Gate Bridge
• Go to Disney Land
• Watch Star Wars
• Win a round of putt-putt golf
• Live in a metropolis
• Live in a small town
• Mentor someone
• Trace my family history
• Host movies by moonlight
• Listen to my grandparents how-we-met stories
• Watch the Changing of the Guard in London
• Create a haven
• Help my husband realize his dreams
• Take horseback riding lessons
• Own a horse
• Own a convertible
• Go to a Lawn-Mower Race
• Visit a coffee plantation
• Try stand-up paddle boarding
• Go to an opera